


Friends Forever

by iansmickey



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: M/M, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-08-17
Packaged: 2020-09-06 09:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20288977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iansmickey/pseuds/iansmickey
Summary: Ian glanced at him. "We are gonna be friends forever… right?"Mickey nodded as he picked up his picture again, staring down at his mother's smiling face."Yeah…" he whispered, nodding. "Yeah, we're gonna be friends forever."





	1. Chapter 1

"Hurry up, Mick! I wanna show you what Fi and I built!"

The nine years old dashed after the little boy. His green eyes had been shining with excitement when he'd told Mickey that he had a surprise, and that he couldn't tell anyone about it if he showed him. Of course, Mickey had agreed; curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"Slow down, Ian!" he complained, a tree branch nearly poking him in his blue eyes as he fought to break through them.

"No!" Ian said with a giggle. "We're almost there, and if we slow down, we'll never be back in time for supper!"

Mickey Milkovich groaned, ducking down under a thicker branch and bumping straight into tiny Ian Gallagher, sending them both tumbling down a small hill. Ian shrieked and giggled, landing on top of Mickey when they came to the bottom.

"Topsies!" he claimed proudly, poking his nose. Mickey pouted with irritation.

"No fair," Mickey grumbled, pushing him off. "We weren't even playing!"

"Don't be a sore loser, Mick… oh!"

Ian scrambled to his feet and ran forward, stopping when he got to a certain tree that, Mickey noticed, had a ladder attached. Puzzled, Mickey sat up and got to his feet again, brushing the dirt off of his jeans.

"What is it?" he asked, jogging over to Ian.

"It's my secret club house!" Ian said, stepping up onto the ladder. At this point, Mickey had cast his gaze up and noticed for the first time the wooden structure balanced up in the tree.

"That can't be very safe," he said, scrutinizing it. Normally he wouldn't care; he and the boys at school climbed trees much taller than this. But Ian was younger.

"Is so!" Ian objected as he started to climb. "Fiona nailed it down nice and good for me so I wouldn't fall."

Mickey frowned, getting onto the ladder and climbing after him. "I bet she said you couldn't come out here by yourself, too, right? Bet you aren't even allowed to climb up the tree on your own!"

Ian scowled down at him, climbing up the rest of the ladder to the small hole in the bottom of the house. "Am too! Fi said I could," he lied. "You can just go home if you're going to be a meanie! I'll bring Mandy next time."

Mickey scowled back and climbed faster, causing Ian to squeal and bolt up into the house and out of sight.

"My dad wouldn't let Mandy out here by herself! He'd be too afraid of her getting hurt!"

"Then why are you out here?" Ian sneered as he huddled up in the corner.

Mickey poked his head up into the small house, frowning over at him. "'Cause my dad don't care what I do, that's why!"

"That's a dumb reason," Ian said, sticking his tongue out at him.

"Is not!" Mickey snapped, leaping up into the house and clenching his fists.

"Is too! Your daddy don't let you do whatever you want! I heard him yell at you before when you was bad!"

Mickey frowned, cringing at the memory. His father yelled, alright; and it was always at him. Little Mandy could do no wrong, but Mickey? He was the bad one. Always being yelled at, grounded, and slapped…

"You be quiet!" Mickey yelled, storming over to him. "I… I could beat you up if I wanted to for that!"

Ian's eyes widened with fear and they flooded with tears as he huddled backward, suddenly afraid that he may do just that. "No, you wouldn't!" he wailed, and the nine year old boy's anger melted away.

Mickey shook his head, moving closer to the little boy. "I won't.... I won't hit you…"

Mickey felt awful for scaring him; he always felt awful when he made Ian feel bad. But, he had a temper on him; a temper he'd inherited from his father…

"Hey… why don't we go back to the party? Get some birthday cake, huh? I bet Carl wouldn't mind if we stole a few pieces…"

Ian sniffled, looking up at him with his big green eyes. "Cake…?"

Mickey nodded lots. "Yeah! Lots of cake… I bet it's chocolate, too; your sister makes the best chocolate cake."

Ian grinned, "No way! Your mommy does!"

Mickey leapt up to his feet, "Come on, then; before stupid Mandy eats it all!"

Giggling, Ian shook his head. "No, Mands wouldn't do that; she don't like chocolate cake. Only chocolate bunnies at Easter time."

Mickey shook his head as he towed Ian toward the exit. "Mandy and her bunnies…"

"Truth or dare, Mia?"

"Umm… truth!"

The little girl nodded, her dark pigtails bouncing as all of the children sat in a circle in the grass, eating cake and ice cream; Mickey was wedged between Ian and, much to his distaste, Mandy. His mother had insisted that he let his little sister play with them all, because it was only fair. Begrudgingly, Mickey had agreed; he did just about anything his mother asked, mainly because Maria Milkovich always asked him nicely. Unlike his father…

"Who's the cutest Backstreet Boy?"

"Ewwwww, Grace!" Mia said, pretending to gag. "Boys are icky!"

Grace rolled her blue eyes and tossed her blonde curls over her shoulder, huffing. "You're so impature, Mia," she sneered, and Mickey snickered.

"Immature, Grace…"

"That's what I said, doofus!" she snapped, glaring at him. "Anyway, the answer is obviously Brian. Brian is the cutest."

"Nuh uh!" Ian objected, quietly, without anyone hearing, "Nick is the cutest! Not that I would know anyway."

"Oh, whatever! It's your turn!" Grace huffed, turning to Mickey.

"Truth or dare, Mick?"

Mickey looked thoughtful before responding with, "Dare."

Grace was about to speak when Mia leaned over, whispering something in her ear. Grace giggled and nodded, turning to face Mickey again.

"I dare you… to kiss me!"

Mickey's eyes widened, moving backward a bit. "Kiss you?"

She nodded, proud of her dare. It was the most grown up one any of them had done so far. The best part was there was no way Mickey would do it.

"On the lips!" She said, grinning deviously, and there were numerous gags around the circle, most of them coming from the boys, Landon and Nolan.

"Gross!" they said, and Grace grinned wider.

Mickey was conflicted. The boys were right; kissing girls was strictly forbidden. It was gross, and everyone knew it gave you cooties. Cooties could kill you, right?

Mickey thought about his parents fleetingly; well, they kissed, and both of them were still alive and well. He was older than all of the other kids, too; maybe one little kiss wouldn't hurt him. 

"Okay, fine."

Horrified, Grace squealed and leapt to her feet, dashing away across the lawn. "Mick, no! That's icky!"

His lips formed into an irritated pout as he got to his feet and chased after her. "You dared me to! If I don't, I lose!"

"No!" Grace squealed, running faster when she realized he was gaining on her. "I'll get cooties!"

"But I gotta kiss you, dummy!" Mickey yelled, running as fast as he could. 

"Noooooo!" Grace shrieked, squeaking when she tripped and fell on her face into the grass, rolling onto her back just in time to be tackled by Mickey.

"Topsies," he said with a smirk, leaning down and placing a clumsy kiss to her lips, pulling back quickly.

"Ewww…!" Grace said in a high pitched voice, a look of disgust on her face. "Mickey…!"

"Gross!" he complained, wiping his mouth on his arm. "You gave me girl slobber!"

"You kissed me, icky boy!"

"You slobbered on me, icky girl!"

The group of children were hysterical with laughter; Mia was rolling around on the grass, and shrieked with horror when Ian, Nolan and Landon pounced on her in attempt to kiss her and get revenge on Mickey's part, seeing that, miraculously, Grace's girl cooties hadn't killed him.

"No!" Mia screamed, thrashing around. "Everybody needs to stop kissing me!"

"Dumb boys!" Grace squealed.

In all of the excitement, the group had failed to keep track of Mandy. None of them had even thought of her until…

"Oh, my God! Look!"

"Maria, go grab her!"

"Mandy, no!"

There was a squeal of tires, numerous shouts from the adult crowd, and then all was deathly silent. A few moments later, Mandy started to wail.


	2. Chapter 2

Mickey couldn't remember a time when he had stayed awake so late. He was sitting in the hospital waiting room beside his father, awaiting results. Luckily, he hadn't seen exactly what had happened.

Mandy was fine. All that she had suffered from was a scraped elbow from when she had been flung away onto the sidewalk.

But Maria…? That was a different story. Mickey's mother had been in the middle of a conversation with Terry, Mickey's dad, her back turned to the road when Fiona Gallagher had given a horrified cry to get her attention.

Mandy had lost a ball that she'd been kicking around when it rolled across the street, and she'd impulsively chased it across the road, not noticing the car coming straight at her. Maria had run faster than ever before and managed to push her young daughter out of the way, but not without receiving full impact of the car herself. The driver had sped off when he realized what he had done, leaving Maria unconscious and bleeding in the middle of the street.

All Mickey remembered was that, when he tried to run to his mother, Fiona had grabbed him and started shouting things at the other children, making them all run into the house. Ian, however, hadn't done so straight away.

"Mick…?" he'd asked fearfully, trying to touch his arm as Mickey struggled to break free of his sister's arms.

"Ian! Get in the house right now!"

Not used to having his sister yell at him, Ian had reluctantly done so. Ambulances had brought Mickey's mother to the hospital and now, they waited. Waited, and waited, and waited…

Finally, one of the nurses emerged with Mandy holding her hand, and Terry leapt to his feet.

"Where's my wife?" he snapped, and Mandy pulled away from the nurse and ran forward, clinging to her father's leg. Mickey remained in his seat, his eyes wide, waiting, engulfed with fear, to hear to news.

Keeping quiet for a moment, the nurse simply shook her head. "We did everything we could," she whispered. "But… she's gone."

Mickey's face had been puzzled with confusion. His mother was… gone? Where had she been taken? To a different hospital? He hoped not; he was too tired to drive any further…

His father's dark eyes widened with disbelief. After a moment, he shrugged Mandy off and ushered her back over to the nurse, turning to Mickey. Without a word, he grabbed his son's arm and tugged him from the waiting room and outside into the cold night, only releasing him once the sliding doors shut behind them.

"You were supposed to be watching her," Terry said, his voice frighteningly quiet.

Mickey looked up at his father with fearful blue eyes. "I'm sorry, Dad… I was playing, and I didn't think…"

"You were supposed to be watching her!"

Mickey flinched back when his father shouted, quivering slightly. "I didn't think she'd run away…"

"Do you realize what you've done?" Terry hissed with his eyes wild with fury. "Do you?"

Shaking his head, Mickey backed up against the wall beside the sliding doors. "No…"

"Well, boy, let me tell you. Your mother is dead. She is gone, and she's not coming back. She died to save your sister! She's dead because of you…!"

Mickey's eyes had been widening with horrified disbelief, and he gave a terrible wail of agony when his father's hand came down and smacked him in the face with such force that it sent him flying to the side, making him fall to the ground and scrape his cheek and arm on the gravel. Tears of pain and horror filled his eyes as he shook his head. "No…! No, she c-can't be…!"

"Shut up! Shut up, you miserable excuse for a son!"

Mickey wailed again as Terry's foot came in contact with his stomach, gasping for breath as agonized sobs escaped him, trying to beg his father to stop, but unable to speak through the pain radiating through his body. He simply whimpered when Terry grabbed him up by his dirty blue shirt and yanked him toward the car, tossing him into the back.

"You can sit here and think about what you've done while I go get your sister," he hissed venomously, slamming the door shut, causing the entire car to shake.

Once he was gone, Mickey crumbled, quivering harder than ever before, sobbing hysterically. His mother was dead. She was dead because of him…

His mother was gone, leaving him in the hands of only his father.

It had been two days since the accident, and Ian was, despite the circumstances, excited to finally see Mickey again. As soon as they were in front of the Milkovich house, Ian had started to run for the door, only stopping when his sister grabbed his hand, shaking her head as she got down to his level.

"Ian, This is a very, very sad day. You need to be on your best behavior, and think about what you say before you say it. Mickey probably won't want to play today."

Ian's brow furrowed with confusion, "How come?" he asked.

"Mrs. Milkovich… had an accident," she said and Ian frowned.

"Well, that's okay… Accidents happen all the time. I spilled crayons in school, but it was an accident…"

Fiona shook her head. "She had an accident with a car. She was trying to help Mandy… it hit her. She went to live with the angels later that night."

Ian's eyes widened. He knew what happened when people went to live with the angels; you didn't get to see them anymore. His mother had gone to live with the angels when he was two.

"But… Mick still needs his mommy," he said quietly with confusion. "She can't go live with the angels now…"

"Sometimes people don't have a choice, Just like we didn't, Ian," Fiona sighed, "Just… make sure you're nice to Mickey and Mandy, okay? Tell them that you're sorry, and don't be too noisy. They're going to be very sad today."

Ian nodded slowly, taking his sister's hand and starting toward the front steps. His little siblings, Debbie and Carl were being babysat by his brother, Lip, who was probably too young to babysit anyone, because, according to Fiona, they were too young and loud for something like this. 

When the door opened, Ian knew his sister had been right. Unlike the many times he'd been to the Milkovich house before, there was no excitement. There was no piano music, no happy laughter; no Maria Milkovich. Everyone was dressed in black, and Ian caught sight of Mandy in her usual place; clinging to Terry's leg.

"Where's Mick, Fi?" he asked quietly as his eyes scanned the room.

"He's probably in his room. It's like I- Ian!"

Fiona hissed her brother's name with irritation as he pulled his hand from her grasp and ran toward the stairs, earning a glare from a very somber, likely very drunk, Terry. Ian ignored his sister, however, and ran up the stairs and toward the door he knew belonged to Mickey. Opening it quietly, he poked his head into the room.

"Mick?" he asked softly, catching sight of him sitting on his bed with his head down, his legs dangling over the edge as he glanced at something in his hands, sniffling. He was dressed in a small, black suit, and Ian thought that he looked very nice. That is, he thought so until Mickey looked up at him and he noticed his red rimmed eyes.

Mickey sniffled and wiped the tears from his cheeks, putting the picture that he had been clutching down on his bed beside him. "Hi, Ian…" he whispered, and Ian's eyes widened as he moved closer and noticed the damage on his face. He had a large, bruised black eye and numerous scratches on one of his cheeks.

"You got hurt, too?" Ian whispered, climbing up onto the bed beside him and touching his cheek. Mickey flinched and shifted away.

"Don't do that!" he croaked, and Ian quickly pulled his hand away.

"I'm sorry…" he whispered, and Mickey miserably looked down, shaking his head.

"I… I'm supposed to say I fell… fell at the hospital…"

"You're supposed to…?" Ian asked with confusion, and Mickey nodded weakly, bringing his gaze up to look at Ian as tears slipped down his marred cheek.

"Can you keep a secret, and promise not to tell anyone?" he asked weakly and Ian nodded, moving closer; he and Mickey always told each other secrets, and he never told anyone.

"Cross my heart," he whispered, taking his hand.

Mickey wiped his tears with his free hand, swallowing hard. "My dad… he hit me. He hit me hard and made me fall, and then he kicked me, too…"

Ian's eyes widened and he gave a tiny, strangled gasp when Mickey lifted the hem of his white dress shirt to show him the bruises on his stomach.

"Your daddy hurt you…?" Ian whispered in disbelief, and Mickey nodded.

"He hurt me bad… He told me not to tell anyone; said no one would believe me anyhow."

Ian was quiet for a moment before moving a bit closer, squeezing his hand in Mickey's. "I believe you, Mick," he whispered, and Mickey gave him a tiny, shaky smile.

Moving as close as he could get, Ian wrapped his small arms around Mickey's torso and hugged him as gently as he could without making his bruises hurt. "My sister said your mommy went to live with the angels," he whispered, not looking up at Mickey. "She told me to say I'm sorry, but I don't think I should be sorry; it's nice where the angels are. She'll be happy up there."

Mickey, despite his strong emotional pain, actually found a bit of hope and comfort in his little friend's words. "You… you really think she'll be happy, Ian?"

Ian nodded, looking up at him. "I know she will. Maybe she'll even get to see my mommy."

Mickey gave him a tiny smile, another tear escaping his eye. "I hope so…"

"I thought that, maybe, without your mommy here anymore you might get lonely," Ian said, still hugging him. "But then I realized that you wouldn't. Wanna know why?"

"Why?" Mickey asked curiously.

"Because you and me are gonna be friends forever," he said, giving him a wide grin, flashing his few missing baby teeth. "And, if you ever start to miss your mommy, you can come see me!"

Mickey gave him a weak smile, looking down again. "Thanks, Ian…"

Ian glanced at him. "We are gonna be friends forever… right?"

Mickey nodded as he picked up his picture again, staring down at his mother's smiling face.

"Yeah…" he whispered, nodding. "Yeah, we're gonna be friends forever."

"Mickey! Get down here this instant!"

Mickey cringed at the sound of his father's furious, drunken voice, and he shakily put his picture down, getting to his feet.

"Wait!" Ian yelled, bouncing off of the bed and running forward to grab his hand. "We'll go together," he declared, and Mickey gave a small smile of relief; there was no way his father could hurt him again if he had Ian at his side.

"Together," he agreed with a nod, and they both started out the door.


End file.
